KAZAKHSTAN: RULES OF INTRA-COMPANY TRANSFER HAVE BEEN REFINED

Please be informed that changes to the Rules of obtaining permissions for attracting foreign labour force in Kazakhstan became effective on September 15th, 2017.

Which law introduces the changes

ü The Order of the Ministry of labour and social protection of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 181 dated June 28th, 2017.

What are the changes

The order introduces the following changes to the rules of obtaining work permits under the intra-company transfer procedure:

1. Work permits applications are approved regardless of availability of local workforce.

2. The host party is to provide confirmation of submitting the workforce demand application when applying for a work permit.

3. Documents of assignee’s education have been removed from the list of documents required for the work permit application. Instead the foreign employer and the host party are to provide official letters stating that the assignee’s work experience and qualifications match the relevant category of foreign employees as well as the position he is being transferred to.

4. The procedure of applying special conditions to a host party which hires foreign nationals has been amended as follows:

ü Special conditions are applied to a host party with its consent i.e. without further endorsement from the authority.

ü Special conditions are applicable in case of both initial application and renewal.

ü A host party which implements the Program of increasing the proportion of local workforce* is exempt from fulfilling special conditions.

* The program is available for certain companies and constitutes a set of measures endorsed by a relevant authority and aimed at professional development of Kazakh employees as well as increase of their proportion in the staff.